Two brothers, Ashok and Naveen were set to be married in a village in Tarikere taluk of Chikkamagaluru district in Karnataka, India on Sunday, January 3.

Sure enough, Naveen tied the knot, but as the ceremony began his brother Ashok was nowhere to be found.

It turned out that Ashok had a secret girlfriend who had reportedly threatened to turn up to the wedding venue and drink poison rather than allow the young man to go through with the ceremony.

Ashok's heartbroken bride-to-be, Sindhu was left sobbing in the wedding venue.

Surprisingly, reports the Bangalore Mirror, Sindhu's family managed to locate someone willing to step up and give the young woman a wedding to remember after all.

After some discussions, one of the wedding guests – a man named Chandrappa, who works as a conductor for the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation – agreed to marry Sindhu.

Amazingly, the dramatic soap-opera plot is nothing new. In 2019, another Indian bride, from Sironj city of Madhya Pradesh, eloped with the man who had been hired to conduct the ceremony.

The priest, a man named Vinod Maharaj who was already married and had two children, didn't just take the 21-year-old bride. The couple eloped with jewellery worth 150,000 rupees (just over £1,500) and 30,000 rupees (around £300) in cash.

An investigation later revealed that the runaway bride had been in a romantic relationship with the priest for two years.

A suspected ritualist on Saturday in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State allegedly killed a nine year old girl, Faith Samuel of Onireke area for ‘ritual purposes.’

The suspect, Alade James, of Alawe compound, Offa, was said to have killed the victim and buried her with a N1000 note in what sources said was for money ritual.

It was gathered that he ran out of luck after some residents got wind of the incident and alerted the police.

Sources also said the corpse has since been exhumed and deposited at the mortuary.

The Kwara State Police command confirmed the corpse was buried with the money on Sunday adding that ‘investigation is still ongoing.’

According to the command’s spokesperson, Ajayi Okasanmi, the suspect has confessed to the crime and will be charged to court after the completion of investigation.

“At about 1812hrs of Saturday, acting on an actionable intelligence, a team of police men arrested a man by name Alade James of Alawe compound Offa, who buried a corpse with N1000 at Ikotun area of Offa.

“The suspect confessed to the killing for money making ritual while the Commissioner of Police, Tuesday Assayomo has ordered a discreet investigation into the murder”, he added.